The Kenya Medical Supplies Authority could soon lose its monopoly in the supply of medicine and non-pharmaceuticals to national and county health facilities.
A new bill scrapping the provision mandating the counties to strictly purchase the commodities from Kemsa has been tabled in the Senate.
The Kemsa (Amendment) Act, 2021 was introduced for First Reading on Wednesday, signaling a relief to counties and a big win for governors who have been pushing for the removal of the provision.
“This bill seeks to amend the Kemsa Act, No.20 of 2013 by deleting the provision that requires county governments to procure drugs and medical supplies from the authority as the first point of call,” the bill reads in part.
The proposed law is sponsored by ODM nominated Senator Naomi Shiyonga.
In her justification for the changes, Shiyonga argues that Kemsa has not been adequately meeting the demands of the counties, only able to supply 60 per cent of the requirements.
This, she adds, has constrained the ability of county governments to ensure county health facilities have adequate drugs and medical supplies to effectively and efficiently provide service to Kenyans.
“The repeal of the provision will allow county governments to procure drugs and medical supplies from suppliers other than the authority thereby ensuring adequate fill rates for both drugs and medical supplies,” the bill states.
Currently, counties are barred from procuring the drugs and other medical commodities from any supplier other than Kemsa.
Section 4(3) of the Act states, “a national or county public health facility shall, in the procurement and distribution of drugs and medical supplies, obtain all such drugs and medical supplies from the authority".
Further, the 2013 Act, amended in May 2019, introduced a jail term of five years or a penalty of Sh2 million or both for anyone who defies the decree.
The tough requirement was introduced to bar counties from purchasing supplies from unscrupulous suppliers and to ensure quality and safety of the commodities.
However, governors have been up in arms about the ‘monopolistic’ provision and have been pushing for amendment to allow counties procure the commodities from other suppliers.
They challenged the provision court. Late last month, the court suspended the requirement.
They argued that restricting the counties to purchase medical supplies from the state supplier was hurting service delivery as the agency cannot meet the needs of the counties.
The county bosses claimed that Kemsa has been a big letdown to counties, adding they have been the cause of the persistent shortage of drugs to public hospitals in counties.
“Kemsa could not only delay delivery of medicines but also manage to give counties barely half of the orders placed,” former Council of Governors chairman Wycliffe Oparanya said last month.
In addition, Kemsa’s turnaround time has been long, leading to disruption of crucial health services in public hospitals.
In the bill, Shiyonga says that the Constitution guarantees every person the right to the best attainable standard of health.
Edited by Henry Makori
